A First Session with Lis

Lis first contacted me in February about modeling. Given her location in Toronto, Ontario 1,200 km to the west of Moncton, I didn't expect to actually have a chance to work with her as I wasn't expecting to be in Toronto in the foreseeable future..

Digital infrared original, 3 frame stitch

Early in June, however, I received an e-mail asking if some dates later on in the month would work for me, and less than two weeks later I was waiting at the Moncton airport, looking for someone I'd never met (or even seen a photo of) before. Less than an hour later, Lis and I had the living room of my house set up and were working on our first set of images.

Digital infrared original

As Lis was only visiting for an afternoon and evening, we decided to work in two sessions, the first with available light. The day had bright skies and few clouds, giving us relatively bright illumination from the sheet-covered windows.

Digital infrared original, 9 frame stitch

A session with a new model is always full of unknown possibilities. When working with someone I've photographed before, often I can anticipate how the images will look, or what the outcome will be like, as I can draw upon the work we've previously created. With someone whom I've never worked with before (or in this case, never even met previously), there is always an open end to the possibilities. That is the real magic of working with new models.

Digital infrared original

As with almost every first session, I began with portraits of Liz, simply asking her to flop on the white sheets and make herself comfortable. The portraits remained the focus for most of the session, with only the occasional foray into working with full body poses, either lying on her side, or from the back on; generally working indoors precludes full body poses, simply because there often isn't enough room for the composition. After a couple of hours of working, we both felt we'd made the most of the time and light, and packed up the available light studio to prepare for a studio water session.